1.07.2008

Nicole Kidman's rep has spent the last week tirelessly shooting down reports that the flame-haired actress is pregnant as "unreliable gossip" - but we're not buying it for one second, and here's why: Page Six has heard from extremely well-placed sources that the Oscar-winning Aussie - who's suffered miscarriages in the past - not only has a bun in the oven but is so concerned about the welfare of her unborn child that she's taking a break from her film career and has dropped out of director Stephen Daldry's post-World War II Germany drama "The Reader," which she was supposed to start shooting this month. The movie is based on Bernhard Schlink's prize-wining book about a man who carries a longtime sexual obsession for an older woman who's later prosecuted for war crimes after it emerges she was a member of the SS and a guard at Auschwitz. But the Weinstein Company, which is producing, will now have to get another leading lady to join Ralph Fiennes and Bruno Ganz and a largely German cast, sources said. Weinstein flack Matthew Frankel said: "I am being told that the status on 'The Reader' has not changed." He declined to be more specific. On Friday, a reporter for Daily Telegraph in Sydney, Australia, asked Kidman point blank whether she was in the family way. She "refused to answer," the paper said. But our insider said: "Of course, everyone knows she's pregnant and lying about it." Another source says a Vanity Fair editor was recently overheard talking about pushing up Kidman's photo shoot for the magazine's annual Hollywood issue. "It's because the costumes she's set to wear won't fit her much longer," the spy said.